About RealMental
RealMental is all about telling the truth. It can get kinda crazy and complicated when you stay all up in your head, so we like to take our thoughts out of the cranium and stick them on the page.
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Jess is awesome. She writes about her life, her children and mostly battles with depression, anxiety and property tax at her blog drowninginkids. She works as a freelance ghost writer for lazy doctors. She has a book of poetry and self-portraits that will be available again soon from Lulu. She enjoys long walks on the beach and a sense of humour.
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Leah is better known for her Leahpeah blog and website. She does interviews for print, text and video. The Ask Leahpeah series on her blog could be called the early version of RealMental and you can find some of the original questions from readers over there. Her book, Not Otherwise Specified, is still available via Lulu.
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Marrit writes about and occasionally experiences various forms of insanity. Her blog, Baldo, chronicles life with her family. She is a regular contributor to The Austin Chronicle and AustinMama.com. Her first book, Inconsolable: How I Threw My Mental Health out with the Diapers, was published by Seal Press in 2005.
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Jen is also fantastic, like everyone else here. It is commonly known that really mental people are of exceptional talent and intelligence. She is not writing a book, but a blog: www.jenandtonic.ca. She writes things here and there, but nothing has made her famous yet. Her biggest fear right now is taking so many different medications and being accurately diagnosed. Jen
experienced her first panic attack at 13. She worries about how being
“mental” effects her husband and child. Good thing she is so fantastic.
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Schmutzie writes the weblog Milkmoney Or Not, Here I Come and Schmoetry and will challenge you to an armwrestle at a moment’s notice. Or argue the logic of pacifism. Or spit in your eye. Or give you a hug. At any rate, she’s all over it.
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Belinda finds it very awkward to write about herself in the third-person. She is married to Alex, who is Bipolar (Bipolar 1), and she’s had her own struggles with anxiety and depression in the last few years, particularly after her father’s death in 2005, and complicated further by hysterectomy in 2006. Alex is dedicated to maintaining his wellness, and together they do their best at just having a “normal” life with their amazing daughter, and dealing with the storms that Bipolar Disorder dishes out. Much of what Belinda writes will by necessity be Alex’s story…but she’s the “talky” one in the marriage. Belinda blogs at www.ninjapoodles.com, and is a contributor to the Arkansas Times blog.
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Amanda is the former author of the blog VeryZen and has struggled with major depression and anxiety for most of her life. She and her husband are awaiting the arrival of their first child who is scheduled to make an appearance in late September. You can see the belly in all it’s glory here.
Amanda feels like a non-blogging 3rd wheel but is thrilled to be writing for Real Mental with such an amazing group of people.
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Moonflower is writing incognito because it is sexy and mysterious.
She is married, has children, and communicates with animals telepathically. She has been “on medication” off and on for about 15 years, has been on and off of talk therapy for even longer. She would like to try this new therapy “EMDR” as there are pretty lights involved and she likes shiny lights and objects. In the short time writing for realmental.org, she has been spending a lot of time hiding under the covers. This is ok for now. She is just glad to have been invited to the party where she can hang out with the really cool kind of crazy.
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Bipolarlawyer blogs about being bipolar, being a lawyer (it’s a toss up which is worse), and cooking at BipolarLawyerCook. She also writes about whatever else strikes her fancy, gets her goat, or looks real pretty. If you’re nice, she’ll cook you dinner and maybe even bake dessert. Bipolarlawyer (or BLC as she sometimes calls herself) maintains an alias and tries to avoid writing too specifically about work, ‘cuz she’s worried about being dooced. She still posts stupid jokes and admits to slightly gross personal habits, though. Go figure.
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Savia is one of few people in the world who can wear green eyeshadow with panache. She has been known to burst into song and/or dance at opportune times and can get away with swearing like a trucker ’cause she’s cute. She writes over at Saviabella about whatever strikes her fancy, which, these days, is incestuous Italian cousins and ninja fucking (not necessarily at the same time.) Who knows what topic she’ll tackle next? Tomorrow, it may be needlepoint (No, it won’t).
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Mr. C. has been working in the mental health arena for over 20 years, and has experience working with adults, youth, and children. He has worked in settings that include inpatient hospitals, outpatient mental health centers, and outpatient private practice. He is sometimes spotted in the garden or running on a mountain trail. Or doing the dishes. Or spending time with the fam. He allows readers to ask questions through this link as long as they realize that he’s just another amazing guy with an opinion–an opinion that each amazing reader should take with a grain of salt.